Story Highlights

The end of political parties

It’s time to stop calling our political parties "parties." They are not "parties."

They are tools for the rich and powerful. They are organizations whose primary goal is to manipulate voters into giving them more and more power, more and more money.

To be an independent voter is to be someone who casts their ballot for the person, not the "party." I hereby pledge allegiance to the Independent Movement in America.

When both political parties have lost their way, when they no longer work for the people but instead work for themselves, their bank accounts, their positions of power, it's time to try something else.

Admittedly, there were some thinking Rs and Ds who made intelligent, thoughtful decisions in this last election, but the fact that the Ds were able to cut Bernie Sanders off at the knees, in order to give us a deeply flawed candidate, to limit our choices, to let money dictate who would be at the top of the ballot, that's disgusting, undemocratic, just plain awful. That the Rs were able to manipulate data and use stolen emails in their quest for victory that made a mockery of our “democratic” system.

It’s time for Americans to stand up, to become informed, to vote not for “party,” but for men and women of integrity.

Rita Welty-Bourke, Nashville 37205

Sanctuary cities illogical

There is no logical reason why sanctuary cities should receive any federal funding, as long as they decide which federal statutes they want to obey. We are a nation of laws and for our democracy to work, our officials must obey them.

If we, the voters, don't like any specific law, we have the constitutional mechanism in place to change them. Both the law and the lawmakers.

I applaud Nashville's decision to reject the request from a few ideologues to convert our town to a sanctuary city.

Proponents believe that when the feds prosecute illegal felons, others would hesitate to come forward and help the police get rid of these really bad guys. This is nonsense

They think “illegals” are not illegal.

They believe that anyone with a pulse, and able to go over, under or around a wall, is welcome here.

They don't understand that most legal immigrants, like my grandparents, have the same values, aspirations and goals of any other law-abiding, American-born citizen.

Legal immigrant families want security just as much as anyone else. We want laws obeyed and the "bad guys" out, whoever they are.

Stephen Morris, Nashville 37205

Bring communities together

Come on people. We all want the same things: decent jobs, safe communities and a better future for our kids.

And we all want the U.S. to prosper and be a beacon of freedom and hope for the rest of the world. We disagree on how to get there, but we're all on the same team. Yes, there's a lot of political goings-on these days, but when did we lose the ability to talk to each other?

Please everybody, let's take it down a notch, try to see other people's points of view (even if you don't agree with them), and bring our communities back together.

Originally published July 4, 1976. Hugh Haynie was The Courier-Journal's staff cartoonist from 1958 to 1996. The cartoonist's homepage, courier-journal.com/opinion
Hugh Haynie, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal